Headlines
Flip-flop over new airport around Delhi continues
New Delhi, July 23
What exactly is the status
of a proposed new airport in the National Capital Region? Going by the
statements of two ministers -- one overseeing tourism and the other
civil aviation -- the position remains unclear.
At a tourism
event here on Thursday, attended both by Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma
and Civil Aviation Minister Askok Gajapathi Raju, the former said the
national city and its neighbourhood needed a new airport, while the
latter has maintained that he is unaware of such a proposal.
The duo, however, was together at the event only for a brief while.
The
remarks by Sharma, who is also minister of state for civil aviation,
come two days after he told parliament that no clearance on such a
proposal had been given -- in what appeared to be a curious about-turn
to an announcement he had himself made on June 26.
Responding to
the June 26 remark, Raju had said: "Please ask Mr Sharma about this.
Anybody can give a suggestion, anybody can write (to the concerned
ministry). I don't even know whether it should go to the Cabinet."
On
Thursday, Sharma said: "There is a lot of congestion at the Delhi. To
serve some 8-10 crore population, who now have to depend solely on the
existing airport, there is a need for another one in the National
Capital Region."
He also went into the formalities to be followed
for clearances and added: "We have written to Rajasthan, Haryana and
Uttar Pradesh governments asking them for land where we can have a new
airport. As and when we get a response, we can act."
Sharma had
earlier said that Jewar, around 100 km from the national capital, was
among the sites identified. "The proposal to develop a new airport, for
which several sites are being explored, including Jewar, would now be
sent to the Cabinet for approval," he had said.
But on Thursday,
he said: "We have not decided on Jewar yet. As soon as we get responses
from the states we have written to, the location will be decided."
The
reason for this flip-flop, according to officials, is due to an
existing guideline that no new airport can come up within 150 km of an
existing one.
The proposal has also come under fire as detractors
claim the present Indira Gandhi International Airport, which can handle
some 62 million passengers per year, has ample under-utilised land and
catered to a traffic of 40.9 million in 2014-15. The airport's capacity
can be expanded to 100 million.
In his reply to the Rajya Sabha,
Sharma had said: "In case there is a need to set up a greenfield airport
within an aerial distance of 150 km of an existing civilian airport,
such cases shall be placed before the union cabinet for consideration."